"Green" policies are destroying this country

Let's take a quick look so.

Ending of free workplace parking - why is this even a thing? If you can park at work for free, happy days, does no harm to anyone else.

A minimum parking charge in all urban areas - money making racket. I live in an urban area, should I be charged for parking at my house?

Congestion charges - another money making racket.

An increase in fuel costs - yes, this one is definitely a popular move. All those articles saying how good it is to see the cost of fuel increase have really gone down well. Less money in the ordinary person's pocket and more taxes and profits for companies is definitely a big vote getter.

There's an underlying theme to all these "initiatives" but I can't quite put my wallet on it.

All very authoritarian sounding in my book.

Record fuel and electricity prices this year haven't curtailed car usage nor has it stopped us hitting new records for peak grid demand. Why? Because for many people they simply have no choice but to use the car and electricity.

Free parking, I'd wager most people working in any sort of major town or city haven't ever had the option to park full stop, never mind park for free, so I would expect any impact in cities will be limited. It'll be the rural dweller working in industrial estates that'll get screwed because good luck finding a suitable bus to get them there and back for work friendly hours.

I can already hear the baffled and confused cries from Government of how could we be losing more Gardai, more teachers, more healthcare workers, more hospitality workers, more night oriented workers?

Maybe they should all just try a cargo bike... Or just raze everything and anything outside of an existing bus or rail line to the ground, and forcibly move anyone living somewhere even remotely resembling rural into high density apartments in a few select cities? No more one off housing, cars or turf fires for you!

It really doesn't apply here at all. It's a BS phrase used to justify all sorts of nonsense. It's interesting terminology though and gives a good insight. Talk of "modal changes", "privilege", "equality" etc are all designed to frame the conversation on your terms. No thanks though. It's nonsense and needs to be called out for it.

It's the old cart before the horse scenario. If you build a functioning public transport system that actually suits the user then people will flock to it. The Luas is a great success but is far too limited in it's reach. Build better and then look at other options to make it less attractive. Don't punish people for not using a service that doesn't actually work or exist for them.

I would have thought the middle of the day in summer had quite a high demand for electricity for quite a lot of Europe?

Thank goodness the planet isn't getting any warmer...

I’ve read the past few pages & im still convinced these policy’s, not just the FFG by the way but the whole EU policy’s on this are an astronomical waste of money, will achieve absolutely NOTHING & everybodys quality of life screwed.

Dacor posted a link that 160 million will be spent retraining the people who lost their jobs in the midlands. All for what exactly?

it’s the blind leading the blind

I wonder will Eamon Ryan and the rest of the city dwelling TDs show leadership and ditch the car ? They keep telling the city folk to get away from the car and use the fantastic public transport. He will in his bollocks ! Another day the government launch a fantasy plan that everyone knows has no chance of being delivered. There will be more vehicles on the road in ten years than there is now unless the government want the economy to collapse ( I'm beginning to think the greens want exactly that ).

Who gets to define "equality"?

Because at the moment it would appear it's one individual and their large cohort of assistants who think nothing of flying here, there and everywhere to decide what to tell everyone else back in Ireland about what they should be doing to reduce their climate footprint (But don't dare point this out to them, they don't seem to like that: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/green-party-leader-eamon-ryan-says-there-shouldnt-be-guilt-trip-over-ministers-taking-business-class-flights-41846386.html)

I'm afraid the "Do as I say, not as I do" attitude definitely doesn't sit well with most people, you'll very quickly lose the room.

The number of people who don't understand our electoral system of PR is frightening.

Why did you leave out this part, as it would be the most important part of the entire article.

"But there was a lack of detail and no clear roadmap for how these targets would be achieved."

We have a crazy situation whereby Moe, Larry, and Curly passed legislation making emission targets legally binding and not a single clue how to actually meet those targets. In a functioning democracy that wouldn't be allowed to happen and needs to be challenged in the courts.

We could be well on our way to reducing generation emissions if we had built more gas to replace coal and oil stations. Alas, that would take forward planning and a clear idea of what to do. Something successive governments have continually failed to do and it's become even worse with Eamo and Co scatter gun approach.

You just proved my point. Thanks.

By your logic nobody ever has a mandate for anything. 75% of people didn't vote for SF the last time and they got the most 1st preferences!

You haven't the foggiest idea. We have PR in Ireland. Look it up 👍